AN ETERNAL PIECE ON RELATIVITY / The Professional Amateurs (Reykjavík)

An Eternal Piece on Relativity is an investigation into the meaning of words and actions and offers the concept that words and actions can only be understood reading the whole context of where they fall. The text used in the performance is a very short scene from The Danceof Death by August Strindberg. The text is delivered as a whole in the beginning of the piece without the actor’s interpretation and is then repeated during 45 minutes where the context of the scene changes constantly. The components in the visual/spatial composition changes and the text moves between genders and ages playing with different constellation. The actors change positions, change roles and use simple objects but avoid putting any emotions or interpretations into the delivery of the text leaving the reading/interpretation to the audience. Gradually a layer of music is put on top of the images coloring the reading. Before each performance the director reads a prolog suggesting the content of the piece. There are four different prologs giving the piece four different angles.

The piece portraits the human being as a victim of its own nature. It describes the urge to become eternal and how the fight for survival makes the man a beast always ready to slay anything that stands in its way. The piece points to the relativity of words and actions and reminds us how little we control our own destiny.

The collective The Professional Amateurs was founded in May 2005, a group of established artists interested in pushing borders and making theatre that is reflective by nature. The Professional Amateurs offer their audience progressive theatre free and independent in process, form and content. They neither regard their performances as entertainment nor a convenient product but rather as a dialog between actors and audience about relevant issues concerning the human nature and until this day have not accepted any admission fees. A retrospective of the collective´s work will be on display as part of LÓKAL and RDF